The manufacture of optical devices such as cameras may involve alignment of optical elements that are mounted on a printed circuit board. For example, a lens may be aligned with an image sensor via mounting holes for each of these components on the printed circuit board. However, printed circuit boards may be low-precision parts that are manufactured with loose tolerances. Therefore, in order to ensure proper alignment of optical elements mounted to a printed circuit board, an active alignment process may be utilized such that a position of an optical element is adjusted while the optical system is “live” (i.e. while the image sensor is actively acquiring images).
However, such active alignment may be complex and require a high level of skill, and therefore may lead to increased manufacturing costs. Furthermore, the alignment process may lead to deformation of the circuit board upon which the elements are mounted, thereby negatively affecting the quality of the electronics.